10. Unrequited
CHAPTER TEN
UNREQUITED
TARYN
As Nash lets go of my wrists, the first thing I do is cover my exposed chest.
He keeps his eyes on me as he tugs his sweatpants back up.
Something is different in the way he’s looking at me. His dark green eyes are still intense and searching, but his gaze has lost that sharp edge it had earlier.
“Hey Nash, would you mind getting me a towel from one of the dryers? I need to clean up.”
He doesn’t hesitate and walks to the opposite side of the laundry room where the dryers have completed their cycles.
Rather than handing me the towel, he begins wiping between my legs. His touch is surprisingly gentle, and that’s more than I can take.
Tears well in my eyes, and I bite my bottom lip to keep them from falling. Why can’t he always look at me the way he is now?
“Sex without a condom is way messier than I thought.” He muses. “But I don’t regret it. Feeling you like this, with nothing between us, was fucking incredible.”
It was. And somehow that’s going to make it even harder when Nash inevitably returns to keeping his distance.
I don’t say that, though. Right now, I don’t think I could take it if he rejected me again.
“Yeah,” I say instead. “And for some reason, this is way messier than I’ve ever experienced. It’s almost like I peed myself, but I swear I didn’t.”
There’s a beat of silence, and a muscle in his jaw pops as he looks up into my eyes.
The implication is clear that I’ve gone bare with someone else.
I brace myself for his reaction, but rather than walking away or telling me that he can’t do this if he isn’t the only one, he smiles.
It’s a soft smile, as all the tension of a second ago melts away. “Yeah, I felt it too. You haven’t done this before?”
“What? Peeing myself? I swear I didn’t. Or if I did, I had no control over it.”
Nash abandons the towel on top of the washer machine to collect my discarded shorts.
“You didn’t pee yourself, trouble. You squirted.” He says, helping me put each leg into the holes and dragging the pants back up.
“I did? But whenever I saw that on video, it was different.”
“Not everything you see in porn is one hundred percent accurate, Trouble. Come on, hop down. I’ll help you carry your laundry back to your room.”
I accept the hand he offers me, and I’m glad I did because my knees almost buckle under me once I’m back on my feet.
“You ok, Trouble?”
The way he’s looking at me, I can’t take it.
He can’t look at me like he cares and then walk away when things get more complicated than he anticipated.
Nash lowers his head, and I know he’s about to kiss me. I want him to, but only if he thinks we have a chance to be something more than friends or occasional hookups.
I’m about to tell him how I feel and consequences be damned, but the noise of someone clearing their throat stops me in my tracks.
“Excuse me. Can you two take whatever you’re doing away from the washer machine I was using?”
Nash turns around to look at Gen. “Hey, Gen. Yes, sorry, we’ll be out of your way. I’m surprised to see you here, though. I would have bet my NHL contract that you’d be at the party. I didn’t peg you as the sort of girl who would do her laundry when she could be out having fun.”
“That’s because I’m not.” Gen doesn’t skip a beat. “I was at the party, but someone puked all over my dress. My couture dress. So I had to wash it before the acid in it ruined the fabric. Thank fuck it wasn’t dry cleaning only, or Jodie would have had to pay me back.”
“Jodie? Did she vomit on you? Is she ok?”
She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. She’s fine. Talia and I took her upstairs and tucked her into bed about twenty minutes ago. Your girl can’t hold her tequila, Taryn.” Her nose scrunches at her last statement.
“She might be getting sick.” I’m immediately worried. “Because this is unusual for Jo-Jo. Usually, she can hold her drink just fine.”
“Yeah, maybe when she has a couple.” Genevieve cackles. “Not when she grabs one of Vaughn’s top shelf bottles and downs three quarters of it on an empty stomach.”
That surprises me and worries me at the same time. “She did? That’s so unlike Jo-Jo. She likes a few drinks, but I’ve never seen her binge like that. Not even when her boyfriend dumped her a few months ago.”
Gen crosses her arms over her chest. “Yeah, well. I guess all the rejection must have finally gotten to her.”
“What do you mean? Did her ex call her or something?”
“Not that I know of,” Gen bites out with an exasperated huff.
“But the little bitch was dead set on getting with Mack tonight. She practically tried to dry hump him in front of everyone. It was like her ass was glued to his crotch. Mack kept trying to get away from her, but she didn’t get the hint.
When he finally told her that he wasn’t into it, she disappeared with the rest of the bottle of tequila after throwing up all over me.
I had to go change and then, rather than partying with the others, Talia and I have been out looking for her drunk ass for the best part of an hour. ”
For the first time, my eyes track Gen’s dark sweatpants and hoodie. It’s identical to the one Nash has on. It might be one Gen has gotten from her ex-boyfriend. It’s a little baggy on her, but Gen is very close to Mack’s six two.
The thought hits me hard. Gen is dressed the same way my stalker was.
“Have you been with Jodie and Talia this entire time?” I ask.
She looks at me as if I were stupid. “No? Talia and I had to split up to find your best friend. And while I was looking for her, I came here to toss my dress into the washing machine. Why does it matter?”
Because she could be the person who’s messing with me. I stare into her eyes, looking for a sign that she’s lying.
But I know it’s useless. Genevieve is one of the slyest people I’ve ever met. She’s a pro at looking like the picture of innocence after stabbing someone in the back.
Every time she did something underhanded to me, from kicking me during practice to forwarding the photo of me and Tucker to Carole to messing with my top before my solo, she looked genuinely innocent.
“It doesn’t matter.” I sigh. “I should go and check on Jo-Jo.”
Gen rolls her eyes again. “Fucking finally. Stop being a ho and go look after your best friend. Friends should come before hook-ups.” She says, looking at me and Nash with a catty smile on her face.
I can’t believe the nerve of some people. “Really? Are you seriously judging me?”
“Am I slut shaming you? Of course I am. So what’s your body count, Taryn? You hooked up with Tucker, Nash, and Mack. You should go for Colsen too, so you can claim you’re fucking all four roommates.”
“I’m not fucking Mack.” I snap.
“Yeah, whatever.” Gen snorts.
I can’t believe this woman. “I swear I’m not. If this is why you hate me, you’re wasting your time and energy for nothing. Mack and I are just friends. I seriously expected better from you, Gen.”
“I don’t give two fucks about what you think about me.” She grinds out. “But you’ve made up your mind about me, right? You decided I’m a bitch, no matter what I do.”
“If the shoe fits. While you’re judging me based on jealousy, I’m judging you based on your actions, Gen.”
For the first time since I met her, Gen looks genuinely hurt.
“Is that so? Or maybe you and I aren’t that different after all.
You’re so busy making me the bad guy that you don’t see that I gave up on a fun party to help your best friend after she tried to get with my boyfriend.
But you’ve decided I’m a bitch, so what I do from now on doesn’t matter. ”
Fuck. Gen isn’t totally wrong. Of course, provided she didn’t send those texts and came down here to terrorize me under the guise of looking for Jodie.
That’s nothing, but a hunch based on her behavior so far, though. Is it possible that Gen isn’t totally bad? “I’m sorry.” I exhale. “You’re right. Thanks for looking out for Jodie.”
“You’re welcome.” She flicks her hair, her blue eyes full of the same distrust I feel for her. “Try to remember that when it’s time to choose our team captain.”
And just like that, Gen’s good deed loses some of its luster. Of course she helped Jodie to try to look good in front of the other girls in the hopes of being voted team captain when the time comes.
“Is Talia with Jo-Jo?” I ask.
“Should be,” Gen offers.
I turn to look at Nash. While Gen and I were talking, he put all the clothes that were in the dryers into my clean hamper.
“Let’s go. I’ll carry these for you, and then I need to get some rest. We have an early practice, and it’s getting late.”
As we make our way to the elevator, Nash looks distant. It’s as if what happened between us in the laundry room was nothing but a hot figment of my imagination.
My hunch is confirmed by the fact that he doesn’t even get out of the elevator. “Here.” He passes me the hamper the second the doors open on my floor. “I’m gonna go back down. Good night, Taryn.”
Taryn, not Trouble.
For some reason that hurts more than if he had said clearly that nothing has changed between us.
He clearly doesn’t want to risk being seen with me if that can cause him trouble with Coach Harrison.
TARYN
The apartment is eerily quiet when I step foot into our living room.
Rather than going into my room to put away my laundry, I dump the hamper on the floor near the couch and head straight to my best friend’s room.
“Talia, Jo-Jo?” I call out, but the only response I get is a pained groan coming from Jodie’s room. “Babes?” I enter the dark room with tentative steps, careful not to walk into a piece of furniture on my way to the bed.
Jodie is slumped halfway onto her bed, her head hanging from one side of the mattress. There’s a big mixing bowl from the kitchen on the floor right below her head.
I sit on the edge of the mattress, brushing her bangs away from her forehead. Her skin is clammy and cold.
“Jo-Jo, are you ok?” I murmur.
“No,” she groans. “I’m never gonna drink again.”